Still alive and well
I have not posted for a while but thought id share some bread that was made today , I was using up some stout that I had opened and I also used up the wholemeal flour that I had, it was intended to be 50% but it ended up a bit more than that. same goes for the stout where I used 420mls and 160ml s of water. I soaked the w/m in all the liquid and had chores to attend to. I weighed up the rest of the ingredients so that I could add them upon my return. As it happened l had to go to the city to file some legal papers and the soak ended up being 7 hours! The dough was then mixed by hand and again used up some compressed yeast that I had on hand. The dough ended up having a 3 hour bulk fermentation and was divided and given 20 minutes bench rest before final shaping . I made 2 loaves that I have not previously shaped before and I cant recall the name given to these, but they remind me of a frenchmen's beret .They are currently cooling so will have to post an inside shot later.
kind regards Derek
Comments
I have a bread book which suggests that loaves were shaped this way when the oven was too narrow to accommodate two loaves side by side. Stout--yum! Wish I could taste your bread! Beautiful loaves.
Hi This Day, No these are not English Cottage loaves, these are different they just have a rolled flat Disc piece of dough sit on top rather than a round piece of dough that is pushed into the larger loaf below with the thumb. I have included a picture of a cottage loaf I made for the first a gathering of the Freo Food Bread Group the loaf is directly in front of the guy in the black t shirt with his arms folded. The gathering was a great success too with some really good "Breads and Spreads" We intend having another get together and with the coming cooler weather of winter it will most likely be a Bread and soup theme. kind regards Derek
Thank you for sharing photos of the sliced loaves and of the breads and spreads buffet, Derek. Let us know when you remember the name for your "beret" loaf shape. You're awaiting winter in Oz, and in the USA I'm waiting for our cold, wet spring weather to warm up.
Bonnie
Hi Bonnie we await winter, Perth has a Mediterranean climate rarely do we see the temperature down to freezing and what's snow all about?. We had no rain officially recorded last month, and expecting 30 degrees on Saturday. personally I love this weather nice warm days but cool nights.
The first get together of the local Freo Food Bread group was a great success and a good chance to meet the people that post their breads on the facebook page, it boasts 180 members and the Freo food group has 3123 members . It has been a good opportunity to be involved with the local community.
I will post when I find out a name for this loaf.
drinking home made stout too! The bread looks grand as usual, amazing how flexible it is if you don't worry about it too much :-)
Happy Baking
Dab, the stout is still flowing and being put to good use, I do find that I set out to make some bread and then have to adjust or compromise , what's the point of having little bits left over when it might as well be utilized, but very important to keep a note of the changes as you go along so that if you are on a winner it can be done again or passed on to others.
kind regards derek
these would be called, but they sure do make me smile to see them! It looks like a version of a technique that I just recently saw a video on, with using a separate piece of dough to create the planned "weak spot" for oven spring expansion instead of scoring / cutting it. It's awesome to see both the "beret" and "English country" versions of the idea - and they both look great.
Thanks for posting these - and hopefully more like them. It is great to get this kind of exposure to unusual techniques and styles.
Hi IceD thanks for your comment, yes the loaves do look quite comical and I think I saw a video with these loaves going into the oven an coming out like a bunch of schoolboys with their caps all astray with no two looking alike.
You are right that the loaves don't require scoring as there is a natural seam where the two dough pieces sit together, handy for those that are shy at the scoring.
A tip I was given and use for the English Cottage loaf is to do a cross cut into the top of the lower loaf prior to placing the other dough piece on top and the driving the top loaf with a floured thumb into the lower loaf. This seems to keep it in place better creates a solid join. The sides can be scored as the one of the Haloumi Cheese and Spring Onions with Tumeric in the picture was.
Hi, Derek. Nice to see you back and baking.
That shape is called an "Auvergnat." Yours looks better than the "classic" and, with the WW and stout must taste quite different. Usually, it's made with a simple "country French" dough - 90% bread flour, 10% rye. I would choose your loaf over the "classic" most any day.
Happy baking!
David
P.S. Here is a video of a baker constructing an auvergnat petit pain: https://youtu.be/Z75XdCE5bKM
Hi David thanks for that I was looking through Elizabeth David's book English Bread and Yeast Cookery and in that there is reference by Eliza Acton that in the mid nineteenth century that the Cottage loaf was the commonest loaf to be found in bakeries with the top part equating to a third of the loaf and quite commonly the baker used his elbow to make the indentation joining the two parts.
It was also stated that in France there was an equivalent and it must have been recognised as a tricky loaf to make as it was one of the tests for every Paris Bakers to make a pain braye' et coiffe' before qualifying as a Master Baker. There are some interesting French papers that come up and can be translated on google if you do a search on pain braye' et coiffe' to but I didn't see any pics there.
Kind Regards Derek